


Our Day Has Come

by Evilawyer



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-20
Updated: 2013-04-20
Packaged: 2017-12-08 23:44:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/767472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evilawyer/pseuds/Evilawyer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The road less traveled.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Day Has Come

On the day he was to finally die, Jack Harkness looked up from his deathbed into the coldest, most hate-filled eyes he had ever seen.

“Come on, Jack,” the Dream Lord cajoled. “You've seen me worse than this.” He sniffed. “And I've seen you better. Right old codger, you are. You didn't age as prettily as you hoped you would.”

“I have,” Jack answered with the befuddled clarity of one who has felt Time pass and now sees its end. “I've seen you at your very worst, but there was always something else there besides hate. Something good. Something pure. What happened to you?”

The Dream Lord snorted. “Oh, the sage philosopher,” he replied with a roll of his eyes. “Could never keep his dick in his pants, but knows all the ins and outs of me. Or is that just hope springing eternal?”

“Hope doesn't have the energy to spring after a while,” Jack responded. “But I expect you know all about that. Besides, hate to tell you, but you're a little too Elmer Fudd-looking for my tastes.”

The Dream Lord laughed. “So typical of the Captain. It's all looks, looks, looks with you. No appreciation of anything remotely resembling complexity. Tell me, how were you able to avoid developing any depth of character all these years?”

Jack coughed a wet, rattling cough that sounded like the primordial sea coming to drag him home in its receding tide. “By being so good looking,” he said when he finally stopped hacking. He fixed the Dream Lord with a stare. “How did you end up like this? Why are you so filled with so much malice? So much hate?”

The Dream Lord regarded Jack for a moment. To Jack, the look in the Dream Lord's eye spoke of assessment, of judging whether Jack was strong enough --- no, _worthy_ enough --- to hear the truth. “Two roads diverged within a wood”, the Dream Lord finally answered. “I took the road less traveled by.”

“And that has made all the difference,” Jack finished. 

In that moment, when everything he was and had ever been was unraveling itself into the dark and empty spaces of the Cosmos, Jack knew many things. He knew he had been bad. He knew he had been good. He knew that redemption is a self-inflicted state of mind. And he knew, without a doubt, that love can never heal all. “I love you, Doctor,” he said, despite all his knowledge.

A small, unpleasant smile crossed the Dream Lord's lips. “I'm sure you do.”

Jack died.


End file.
